Admonish as Brothers

"And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. ¹⁵ Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15

In his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul issued corrections and instructions concerning those who were idle and disorderly.  He directed Christians who observed unruly believers to warn the disobedient and to avoid company with them for the purpose of repentance and restoration.  In this case social pressure to obey God and walk in holiness served a good purpose, for shame and conviction over sin provided strong motivation to repent and live in the way that pleases God and fostered unity in the church.

Paul said a fellow Christian who erred was not to be treated as an enemy but believers were to "admonish him as a brother."  Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines to admonish as, "to teach, warn counsel, to reprove with mildness."  Not only was correction and instruction to be done in a gentle fashion but with the same approach as one would with a brother.  They were not to admonish as a boss to a worker or a parent to a child:  they were to admonish as equals who shared the same God and Saviour.  While brothers have different personalities, they have more in common than anyone else on the planet.  Brothers share the same parents, genetics, upbringing, and usually a last name.  On the basis of their relationship as family, brothers ought to be committed to one another and to love one another regardless of differences or mistakes.  While people may fall short of this ideal, it is a noble aspiration.

If brothers are committed to support and help each other on the basis of their temporal relationship, how much more sacrificial our love, patience and grace be towards brothers and sisters in Christ whom Jesus loves and has purchased with His own blood?  We have been redeemed by the same Saviour and received the same forgiveness, acceptance and love of God, and thus we are supernaturally equipped by the Holy Spirit and guided to extend the same to all our Christian brethren.  Tragically we in the church--like all sinners--fall short of God's standard of perfection, and we can be unwilling to work on our sanctification or labour to admonish our brothers at all.  Somehow we imagine someone else should be held responsible to do what God demands of us.  Lack of love and unity are results when we allow grievances to fester, respond to sin with harshness, or admonish like an angry judge does a criminal when we are just as crooked ourselves.

It may be we have been admonished (and rightfully so) but not in a kind or gentle way, but we ought to receive it in the loving manner such admonition ought to have been given.  We can receive instruction and correction from the hand of our Saviour from a rude messenger as from the LORD.  Let us give grace as those who instruct as well as those who are being taught by our LORD Jesus.  We may fail to warn or reprove those who err with mildness, and we have been guilty of ignoring rebuke because it was not done with the right heart--but who among men is always right but Jesus?  Be certain of this, brothers and sisters, that the way to give and receive reproof and correction is when we walk in the love of God and one another.  Instead of seeing a Christian brother or sister as an enemy, let us admonish them (when needed!) as brethren we love and are committed to loving forever because of the relationship we share with God our Father.